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The surplus property division of the S.C. Budget and Control Board has listed the Civil War-era banknotes for sale on eBay. The notes were issued some 150 years ago by the Bank of the State of South Carolina, one of the few banks of the era operated by a state. The goal is to raise money for the cash-strapped S.C. Department of Archives and History.
By Molly Parker
mparker@scbiznews.com
Published March 6, 2009
The S.C. Department of Archives and History is hoping that the sale of some 150-year-old banknotes will generate new money for the cash-strapped agency.
The surplus property division of the S.C. Budget and Control Board has listed the Civil War-era money for sale on eBay. For instance, the starting bid for a canceled $4 bank note — issued from the Bank of the State of South Carolina, which collapsed during the Civil War — starts at $150.
The Bank of the State of South Carolina was one of the few banks of the era operated by a state; it was founded in 1812.
“With the state budget cuts, we’ve lost about one-third of our budget in recent years,” said Charles Lesser, senior archivist for the department. “We’re in very dire budgetary times. This is one way, an imaginative way, of keeping our heads above water. And we’re making space (in the vault). Every little bit helps.”
Should any history buffs be offended by the sale, Lesser was quick to reassure that the state is not selling off any original, precious or last-remaining items from the department’s vault.
He estimated that, at one point, the department had some 1 million sheets of canceled banknotes, if not more.
“We would not sell unique documents,” he said. “What we’re doing in this process, we’re keeping two perfect sets of everything for ourselves and giving one set to the state museum.”
The canceled $4 bill includes a picture of Fort Moultrie in the center; on the left is former U.S. Sen. Robert Hayne, elected in 1823 to represent South Carolina; and on the right is Langdon Cheves, an S.C. resident who in 1814 became the ninth speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and was later a judge in Charleston.
“The notes were supposed to be destroyed in the 1880s but they were not,” Lesser said.
As to why they were not, Lesser said he doesn’t know.
This is the second time department has sought to sell the Civil War-era currency. Last year, as the state looked for ways to tighten its belt, the department decided to open its vault and sell off these state artifacts.
The department raised about $200,000 in an auction, he said. Under state law, the money must go toward the protection of the state’s historical collections.
Budget and Control Board spokesman Mike Sponhour said the agency’s surplus property division sells off all sorts of items for various state departments, such as cars and furniture, as well as knives the Transportation Safety Administration collects at the state’s airports.
State and local agencies have first dibs on the items. If other governmental entities don’t need or want whatever is for sale, the items are put up for public bid. In the 2008 fiscal year, the state generated about $6.7 million in cash, and saved government agencies about $1.6 million, by selling surplus items, Sponhour said.
The Civil War-era bank notes are among the more unusual items the state has sold, Sponhour said. See listings of items the state has up for auction.
Reach Molly Parker at 843-849-3144.
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